by Arienne Thompson, USA TODAY

by Arienne Thompson, USA TODAY

Actor Josh Brolin's struggles with alcoholism have been well-documented, but he's now revealing that he has experience with harder stuff.

"I tried heroin," the actor reveals to The Guardian. "That sounds so horrible when you put it like that. But yeah, I tried heroin. I mean, I never got into it and I never died from it, which is a good thing. I've had 19 friends who died. Most of those guys I grew up with, they're all dead now."

He was also part of a group of tough surfers called the Cito Rats that he insists wasn't a gang, but rather a group of like-minded, rough-around-the-edges kids.

"It was Santa Barbara. It was the '80s. It was punk rock. You either had the children of rich, neglectful parents or children of poor, neglectful parents, so it was a mix. But we basically grew up the same way. I've never seen a group like that before or since."

He made another admission about his past, too: his self-proclaimed lack of acting chops.

"I'm an insecure guy," he admits. "Skittish and scared. There's this woman, Meryl Poster, who worked at Miramax. She told me later: 'You and Benicio Del Toro were the worst auditioners we ever experienced. In all the thousands we saw. By far.' ... Any actor I became was completely and totally learned from doing a lot of really, really bad acting. Which still happens, incidentally. Every time I shoot a film I have to feel my way into the part. I have to learn to do less. The more affectations I have, the more I can hide. The more free I feel because it's not coming from me."